Japan approves child abduction treaty

Japan has approved an international treaty on child abductions following decades of international pressure.

Photo: Alamy

By Danielle Demetriou, Tokyo

8:41AM BST 22 May 2013

Politicians voted unanimously for Japan to join The Hague Convention, which requires the prompt return of kidnapped children to the countries where they normally reside in cross-border custody disputes.

Japan is the only member of the Group of Eight industrialised nations that has not ratified the treaty, despite growing international pressure to do so since it went into force three decades ago.

Child abductions have become an increasingly high profile issue in recent years in Japan, which unlike the West, is home to divorce laws that do not officially recognise joint custody.

As a result, there have been a growing number of cases involving the abduction of children born to one Japanese and one Western parent following the breakdown of their marriage.

Politicians in the Upper House of parliament approved a bill that will pave the way for Japan to join the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction by March next year.

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The foreign ministry plans to create a central authority to take charge of locating children who have been removed by one parent following the collapse of an international marriage.

Estranged couples will be encouraged to settle cases voluntarily although in cases where this is not possible, family course in Tokyo and Osaka will issue rulings.

Japan's ratification of the treaty, which currently has 89 nation members, is likely to be warmly welcomed by the United States, which has long put pressure on its ally to fall into line on the issue.

Parliament's approval of the treaty comes only three months after Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, promised to take action following talks at the White House with the President Barack Obama.

Hundreds of children at the centre of Japanese custody battles have reportedly been abducted in recent years, including dozens of cases relating to British parents in the UK.

The new law to be passed in Japan will permit parents to refuse to return children if abuse or domestic violence is feared, a caveat that campaigners recognise as essential but fear may be exploited as a loophole.